And it was, when Bilaam the guilty saw Pinchas the priest running after him, he performed a magical feat and flew in the air in the sky.Immediately, Pinchas pronounced the Great and Holy Name and flew after him, and grabbed him by the head and brought him down and was about to slay him.He {=Bilaam} opened his mouth with words of supplication and said to Pinchas: If you let me live, I swear to you that as long as I live I will not curse your nation.He {Pinchas} responded and said to him: Are you not Lavan the Aramean who wished to destroy our forefathe Yaakov? And you descended to Egypt to destroy the descendants. And after they left Egypt you incited {to war} against them the wicked Amalek. And then you hired yourself out so curse them. And when yuo saw that your actions did not help and Hashem did not accept your words, you counseled an evil counsel to Balak to place his daughter at the crossroads to lead them astray, and because of this 24,000 of them died. Because of this, it is not possible anymore to spare your life.And immediately, he drew his sword from its sheath and slew him.

A few points before I get to the wicked-cool part (first discussed by RJW here)

(1) There doesn't seem to be any doubt that the author of these words imagines that Balaam and Laban are the same person.
(2) The similarities between this account and the Judas v Jesus dogfight described in Toldot Yeshu are impossible to miss.
(3) Cozbi Bat Tzur is identified as Balak's daughter (The identification, hinted at here, is implicit elsewhere in TPJ)
(4) Balaam's bargaining hand is very weak. He promised to quit the cursing business if he's allowed to live, but guess what: If he's dead he can't curse anymore either. (The whole focus on cursing in this passage is strange. Cursing has been shown not to work. God steps in when the enemy comes with words, yet seems powerless to intervene when the threat is a hot girl.)

Okay, on to the cool part:

Pinchas says: Aren't you Lavan the Aramean who tried to destroy our forefather Yaakov? And you descended to Egypt to destroy the descendants. And after they left Egypt you incited {to war} against them the wicked Amalek. And then you hired yourself out so curse them.

This (again RJW had it first) is a wicked-clever reworking of a famous Torah verse, namely

As I've pointed out before, the ID of the Arami is unclear. Interpretations include, Avraham, Jacob and Lavan. See here and here Those who say it is Lavan (the Sifrei, for starters) interpret the verse this way:

An Aramean (Lavan) destroyed my father (Jacob)* and he (my father) went down to Egypt where he lived [= וַיָּגָר] few in number

TPJ has brilliantly re-worked it to support his contention that Balaam is Lavan. His translation of the Torah verse is something like this:

An Aramean (Lavan/Balaam) destroyed my father (Jacob)* then he (Lavan/Balaam) went down to Egypt where he incited [= גריתא a word play that connects to וַיָּגָר] Amalek to attack them and where he hired yourself out [ =איתגרתא איתגרא, another play on וַיָּגָר]to curse them

RELATED:

*What's that you say? The Aramean didn't actually destroy our father. See this for the explanation

If it relates to Jews, Judaism, holidays, Midrash,Torah, halacha or anything similar, I probably have a post on it. And if I have a post on it, I probably have a good comment thread with great reader-provided information, too.

Try a search and see for yourself. If you can't find what you're looking for ask me.

Quotes

רֹאשׁ דְּבָרְךָ אֱמֶת קוֹרֵא מֵרֹאשׁ דּוֹר וָדוֹר עַם דּוֹרֶשְׁךָ דְּרֹשׁ
Your chief word is "truth"; You've called it out since the beginning. In each generation people interpret You [for themselves] and find [their own] meaning.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd. -Flannery O'Connor

“When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.” - R. Abraham Joshua Heschel

I don't accept at all the quite popular argument that the press is responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. The monarchy's responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. To blame the press is the old thing of blaming the messenger for the message. -Anthony Holden

Said behind my back

"...he's trying to show that there are other facets to Orthodox Judaism. That we don't all think one way and vote one way. And he's occasionally entertaining when he's not being mean-spirited" [PsychoToddler]"

"He's witty. He's funny. He appreciates the ridiculous in life, and has no qualms about telling you when he thinks that you're being a moron" [Cara]

" I'm pretty sure [DovBear] is a really great guy who just wants to be able to ask questions and talk about things without the fear of someone claiming he's off the derech or on his way there." [Chaviva]